Sick of “Lost your password?” and “Forgot your username?”

Living the Web 2.0 life, we’ve heard about OpenID a lot lately. Redefining the concept of online personalities (the web seems to be the weird and only place that allows multiple personalities without getting others judgmental and has people end up in a shrink’s office.

Fed up with this huge pile of passwords, user names and tons of profiles to maintain? Well, I think Phil’s got something for you. OpenID. Explained for once. After the jump.

The basic idea of OpenID…

• is to fight the issue every active internet user (producing user-generated content and thus powering the Web 2.0) faces nowadays: Heaps of pages require a site-specific account to participate in communication on various levels. Comments. Sharing pictures. Blogging. Chatting. You name it.
• allows signing into web based services with ONE single “key” that consists of an OpenID URL and an OpenID Password.
• gives you an online ID card.

The advantages are of course that you don’t have to deal with yet another username, yet another password. Aren’t you bothered by the loads of passwords we keep track of.

The solution that most of the internet users are content with is a sort of local Keychain (Mac OS X reference). Enter a password and the browser asks you to save that information. The downside is that this isn’t safe to do so on a shared computer. Unless you feel like sharing your emails, your Facebook account with others. Some people are forced to reset their browser in order to maintain performance and get rid of cookies that have been installed. Modern browsers already offer a selection of what to reset, but still, wouldn’t it be nice to have online accounts saved online and easily managed online instead of local OS bound keychain solutions?

On average an active user like me enters 7 passwords with a site-specific user account a day for internet services. Think about the number of passwords you enter? I realized that there are hardly any websites that don’t offer interaction, thus require you to get an account for their site only. I’ve got this huge pile of internet identities…

• Gmail
• news.orf.at (debating via commentary system)
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Friendfeed/Socialthing - you will hear about that soon by the way
• Twitter
• my own blog (administration for Wordpress)
• and many many more blogs where I feel like I have something to contribute.

My Keychain actually takes care of this quite nicely, but whenever I leave my Macbook, I have a hard time when some internet services bothers me with authentication. Well I’m glad that my email box is protected, but let’s be honest, the oh so user-focused internet should slowly come up a better management of online identities. So let’s see if OpenID is made for you and fits into your elife…

Where do I sign up for an OpenID? The number of OpenID providers is growing and there are actually quite some neat ones out there… Check this independent list for free public OpenID providers.

I picked three providers that I gave a go in the past.

• Clickpass - This is my current provider. The design is quite neat, sophisticated and it also brings in a nice approach of logging in with an online identity (this is the big reason I chose Clickpass): One Button. One Button that leads you to the Clickpass verification page and then takes you back to the original service automatically.
• MyOpenID - Too complicated for a mediocrely tech-savvy person like me who loves to keep things simple.
• Wordpress.com - I don’t like their interface. I love to call it dirty-old-Wordpress-admin-center-look. I am sick of it. Sorry Matt. Plus, I am not using my Wordpress.com account, just for Wordpress.com blogs where I comment (I am automatically logged in since my stats require a wordpress.com login). But I’d rather would like to use my OpenID for it. I am automatically logged in on my Macbook because my blog’s stats are located there, but that’s it. It doesn’t feel right to me. Not that I don’t trust them…

How to log in using OpenID

You log in using your OpenID URL (that differs from service to service, please check below how to get your site’s URL as your unique OpenID) and that automatically forwards you to your OpenID provider. It then asks you if you agree to allow the page you orginally intend to log into, to use your information (given your are logged in your OpenID provider - if not, you are asked for the OpenID password first).

Your OpenID does not spare you the actual registration process - however it is facilitated. When registering on an OpenID enabled site it asks you if you already possess an OpenID and this is the part where you don’t have to remember yet another account’s username and password. The service you however might create a new user on their system, but you no longer care about that extra profile, since your OpenID login will be accepted as well.

OpenID and Commenting

Most people will use OpenIDs for commenting on other blogs, right?

Use My Homepage’s URL as an OpenID

This is probably what a large percentage of users wants to do after signing up for an URL. Clickpass for example offers an OpenID with this structure: http://clickpass.com/public/USERNAME - This is what is submitted in a, let’s say, comment from. A lot of bloggers comment on other blogs to draw attention to their own blog. Altruistic, I know. Your actual OpenID URL won’t allow this since it forwards you to a blank page. Plus, most users don’t want to enter this long URL that - on top of it - won’t bring any benefit at all, right?

Well, here is the trick how to use your own site’s URL for your OpenID URL. Put the following code into your index’s header.

<link rel="openid.server" href="http://www.clickpass.com/openid_server"/>

<link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://clickpass.com/public/phila"/>

Your provider will offer this information, most likely in its FAQ pages. All you need is your OpenID Server’s address and your OpenID URL…

Now, you enter your site’s URL, the OpenID enabled service checks your site’s header for a forwarding-tag and then you’re done. The rest is done by the OpenID provider. Handy, what?

OpenID and Online Services

Some services that allow signing up with an OpenID are listed on MyOpenID.com. There have been several inititives asking companies to adopt. One that tracks the number of people requesting OpenID-enabled technology on a specific site. With a bookmarklet (that adds up to the Web 2.0 experience), a request (using demand.openid.net) is easily submitted. Sign-up required (with your OpenID, though, so it actually is NO pain! 

Among the top ten wish list are Twitter, Google, Facebook, Delicious and Wikipedia. Les Grandes de Web 2.0, c’est à dire.

Plus, and I most certainly like that: Brad Fitzpatrick said during the introduction of his project, “it’s actually decentralized and doesn’t entirely crumble if one company turns evil or goes out of business”. How that? Well, you can change your OpenID provider, change your site’s header forwarding tag and nothing will change for your accounts that you set up already (just some verification - usually one-click) and your comments submitted are still pointing at the correct site (your blog or online presentation).

OpenID and Your Site + Enable OpenID

Most blogs are run on platforms like Wordpress or Movable Type. If you can rule over your own blog, meaning you can install plugins and customize it.

Movable Type, taking an idol-ish position, has this technology integrated in version 4.

Wordpress however hasn’t confirmed this feature for the upcoming release of Wordpress 2.6 and is, if you ask me, scandalous. Luckily there is a plugin that takes care of it: Wordpress OpenID Plugin.

Blogger operated by the open-standards loving Google allows that since ages. Cough. Since December 2007. That is old in internet speak, but still topical for slow, lazy and conservative Windows 98 users, I know.

Spread the easy use of this useful standard

To really spread the easy use of this useful standard, many more services have to allow signing up using OpenIDs. If it is in your hand to do so, it would be very progressive of you. Huge services like Google, Yahoo!

So what’s keeping you from getting an OpenID? Are you concerned that one big service “knows” to much about you? Paul Stamatiou who also embraces OpenID first also thought, “I was always taught not to put all of my eggs in one basket” but then comes to the conclusion that Clickpass made him rethink the concept of OpenIDs.

Would you find use in this new approach of online identity?

Last but not least, you from now on can comment using your OpenID - just enter it into the Homepage field and you’ll be directed to your OpenID provider asking you for permission to file the comment.

For further information, please visit openidexplained.com!